1. INTRODUCTION. - 1 Cultural Evolution and Political Centralization. - 2 Communication Holism and the Evolution of Sociopolitical Complexity. - II. THE EMERGENCE OF LEADERS. - 3 The Origins of Centralization: Changing Features of Local and Regional Control during the Rio Grande Classic Period ad 1325-1540. - 4 Assessing Political Development in Copper and Bronze Age Southeast Spain. - III. LEADERS TO RULERS. - 5 Rulers and Warriors: Symbolic Transmission and Social Transformation in Bronze Age Europe. - 6 Institutionallization of Chiefdoms Why Landscapes Are Built. - 7 Cosmology and the Institutionalization of Hierarchy in the Maya Region. - IV. RULERS IN POWER. - 8 Mesoamerican Political Complexity The CorporateNetwork Dimension. - 9 Understanding the Timing and Tempo of the Evolution of Political Centralization on the Central Andean Coastline and Beyond. - 10 Who Was King? Who Was Not King? Social Group Composition and Competition in Early Mesopotamian State Societies. - V. CONCLUSION. - 11 Nonlinear Paths of Political Centralization. - References. Language: English